Systems and methods for on demand intelligent analytics dynamic access network slice switching and carrier aggregation

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for dynamic access network slice switching and carrier aggregation include a radio access network (RAN) and user devices with dual radio user equipment. The RAN receives a 4G and a 5G service request from user equipment having a specified priority. A first RAN slice for the 4G and 5G service request is instantiated using a RAN scheduler. A temporary radio resource control protocol slice having an associated timer that allows the dual radio user equipment to stay connected to the RAN for a period of time is then instantiated. Instructions identifying an appropriate resource and RAN slice for complying with user plane service level agreement requirements are received at the RAN and a second RAN slice for instantiating a carrier aggregation slice comprising both the 4G and 5G radio resource control protocol request for complying with the user plane service level agreement requirement is engaged.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure pertains to the field of network communications,and in particular to a system and methods for implementing network sliceswitching and carrier aggregation.

BACKGROUND

4G is synonymous with Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology, which is anevolution of the existing 3G wireless standard. LTE is an advanced formof 3G that implements a shift from hybrid data and voice networks to adata-only IP network. There are two key technologies that enable LTE toachieve higher data throughput than predecessor 3G networks: multipleinput, multiple output (MIMO) and Orthogonal frequency-divisionmultiplexing (OFDM). OFDM is a transmission technique that uses a largenumber of closely-spaced carriers that are modulated with low datarates. It's a spectral efficiency scheme that enables high data ratesand permits multiple users to share a common channel. The MIMO techniquefurther improves data throughput and spectral efficiency by usingmultiple antennas at the transmitter and receiver. It uses complexdigital signal processing to set up multiple data streams on the samechannel. The early LTE networks support 2×2 MIMO (indicates two antennasat the transmit end and 2 antennas at the receive end) in both thedownlink and uplink.

5G is the term used to describe the next-generation of mobile networksbeyond the 4G LTE mobile networks of today. Most experts say 5G willfeature network speeds of 20 G/bps or higher and have a latency of meremilliseconds. Not only will people be connected to each other but sowill machines, automobiles, city infrastructure, public safety and more.5G will likely be designed to build upon the existing LTE networks andmany features will start to be available as part of the LTE-Advanced Prostandard. Some of those features include carrier aggregation, which letsoperators use existing spectrum more effectively and also increasesnetwork capacity. Carrier aggregation will also allow wireless operatorsto increase user throughput rates. Software-defined networking (SDN) andnetwork functions virtualization (NFV) are play a key role for operatorsas they migrate from 4G to 5G and scale their networks. SDN will benecessary for operators to carve virtual “sub-networks” or slices thatcan be then used for bigger bandwidth applications. That includes video,which might need throughput speeds of 10 Gb/s as well as lower bandwidthapplications to connect devices that are less demanding on the network,such as smartwatches. 5G networks are also expected to have always-oncapabilities and be energy efficient, all of which will likely requirenew protocols and access technologies.

Throughput, latency, reliability, availability are paramount importancewith the increasing diversity of services carried by mobile networks. 5Gsystems are expected to be built in a way to enable logical networkslices, which will allow telecom operators to provide networks on anas-a-service basis. Through the use of SDN and NFV, functional nodes canbe created at various points in the network and access to the functionalnodes can be restricted to sets of devices. Network slicing technologycan provide connectivity for a variety user devices including smartmeters requiring high availability and high reliability data-onlyservice, with a given latency, data rate and security level and, at thesame time, providing connectivity for applications requiring very highthroughput, high data speeds and low latency such as an augmentedreality service.

Slice handover/reselection is the process where a UE is served by afirst slice, but then is moved to another slice to receive networkservices. A UE may move from a first slice to a second slice (a slicehandover, or a slice reselection) for a number of reasons. For example,if a user is attached to a first slice, and moves to a location that isnot served by resources in the slice there is a need to transfer theuser to a different slice to continue supporting the UE. Servicerequirement changes may be another reason for a slice handover. Forexample, it may be desirable to switch from a network slice with lowmobility support when the UE is in a congested areas to high mobilitysupport when the UE may be travelling at high speed on a highway.

Due to the diversity of 5G application scenarios, new mobilitymanagement schemes are greatly needed to guarantee seamless handover innetwork slicing based 5G systems. There is a need to provide intelligentdecision making in the allocation and switching of network slices. Thereis a need to provide scalable expansion of network resources accordingto subscriber traffic and service delivery. There is a need to provideon demand resource allocation in 5G networks using slice allocation.There is a need for a user equipment initiated method to dynamicallyallocate and switch network slices accessed by the user equipment. Thereis a need for instantiating carrier aggregation slices comprising both4G RRC and 5G RRC to comply with user plane service level agreements.There is also a need to provide service assurance based on needs, devicepriority and service priority.

SUMMARY

One general aspect includes a method including: receiving at a radioaccess network a 4G service request and a 5G service request from a dualradio user equipment having a specified priority, instantiating a firstradio access network slice for the 4G service request and the 5G servicerequest using a radio access network scheduler, instantiating atemporary radio resource control protocol slice having an associatedtimer that allows the dual radio user equipment to stay connected to theradio access network for a period of time, forwarding a combined 4G and5G radio resource control protocol request to a management gateway via acontrol plane, receiving instructions identifying an appropriateresource and an appropriate radio access network slice for complyingwith user plane service level agreement requirements, and engaging asecond radio access network slice for instantiating a carrieraggregation slice including both the 4G and 5G radio resource controlprotocol request for complying with the user plane service levelagreement requirement.

One general aspect includes a system including: a processor, a memorycoupled to the processor and configured to store program instructionsexecutable by the processor. The instructions include instructions toreceive at a radio access network a 4G service request and a 5G servicerequest from a dual radio user equipment having a specified priority.The instructions also include instructions to instantiate a first radioaccess network slice for the 4G service request and the 5G servicerequest using a radio access network scheduler. The instructions alsoinclude instructions to instantiate a temporary radio resource controlprotocol slice having an associated timer that allows the dual radiouser equipment to stay connected to the radio access network for aperiod of time. The instructions also include instructions to forward acombined 4G and 5G radio resource control protocol request to amanagement gateway via a control plane. The instructions also includeinstructions to receive instructions identifying an appropriate resourceand an appropriate radio access network slice for complying with userplane service level agreement requirements. The instructions alsoinclude instructions to engage a second radio access network slice forinstantiating a carrier aggregation slice including both the 4G and 5Gradio resource control protocol request for complying with a user planeservice level agreement requirement.

One general aspect includes a non-transitory computer-readable storagemedium, including program instructions, where the program instructionsare computer-executable to: receive at a radio access network a 4Gservice request and a 5G service request from a dual radio userequipment having a specified priority; instantiate a first radio accessnetwork slice for the 4G service request and the 5G service requestusing a radio access network scheduler; instantiate a temporary radioresource control protocol slice having an associated timer that allowsthe dual radio user equipment to stay connected to the radio accessnetwork for a period of time; forward a combined 4G and 5G radioresource control protocol request to a management gateway via a controlplane; receive instructions identifying an appropriate resource and anappropriate radio access network slice for complying with user planeservice level agreement requirements; and engage a second radio accessnetwork slice for instantiating a carrier aggregation slice includingboth the 4G and 5G radio resource control protocol request for complyingwith a user plane service level agreement requirement.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an illustration of a 5G device initiated dynamic accessnetwork slice switching system architecture.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a method for 5G device initiated dynamic accessnetworks slice switching.

FIG. 3 is an illustration of a system for dynamic resource allocation ina network.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENTS

Illustrated in FIG. 1 is an exemplary communication network 100 in whicha 5G device initiated dynamic access network slice switching method maybe implemented. A network 101 includes a software defined network (SDN),SDN network 103. The SDN network 103 can be controlled by one or moreSDN controllers. For example, the SDN network 103 may include an SDNcontroller 105. The SDN controller 105 may be a computing systemexecuting computer executable instructions and/or modules to providevarious functions. In one or more embodiments, multiple computer systemsor processors can provide the functionality illustrated and describedherein with respect to the SDN controller 105. In one or moreembodiments, the SDN controller 105 may include various componentsand/or can be provided via cooperation of various network devices orcomponents. For example SDN controller 105 may include or have access tovarious network components or resources, such as a network resourcecontroller, network resource autonomous controller, a service resourcecontroller, a service control interpreter, adapters, applicationprogramming interfaces, compilers, and network data collection and/oranalytics engine (not shown). SDN controller 105 may also include accessinformation describing available resources and network information, suchas network objects statistics, events or alarms, topology, and statechanges. In one or more embodiments SDN controller 105 may use, generateor access system configurations, including configuration of resourcesavailable to the SDN controller 105 for providing access to services.

The network 101 may be provided with common control plane functions 107that include a management gateway such as MGW 109 and a slice selectionfunction (SSF) such as SSF 111. The MGW 109 can capture traffic enteringthe communication network 101 from various communication devices forexample user equipment such as UE 112. MGW 109 can communicate with theSDN network 103 through SDN controller 105 regarding traffic enteringthe communication network 100. In one embodiment the MGW 109 and the SDNcontroller 105 can communicate via an OpenFlow protocol. The MGW 109 caninform the SDN controller 105 of information regarding services soughtby one or more communication devices such as UE 112. SDN Controller 105is an application in a software-defined network that manages flowcontrol to enable intelligent networking. SDN controller 105 allowservers to tell switches where to send packets. SDN controller 105 canalso analyze requested services to determine the service functions andor network data flows that would be required to facilitate delivery ofthe services to the user equipment such as UE 112.

SSF 111 is responsible for selecting the appropriate slice per user.SSF111 includes a network interface for receiving indications oftriggering events and for transmitting instructions, a processor and anon-transient memory for storing instructions. The instructions, uponexecution by the processor, cause the slice selection function to selecta second slice as a target slice; and to initiate a migration of themobile device to the selected target slice in response to a slicereselection triggering event associated with a UE112. In someembodiments a slice reselection triggering event occurs when there is achange in the service requirements of the mobile device. In someembodiments the instructions which cause the slice selection function toinitiate a migration of the UE112 to the selected target slice may beresponsive to a slicing decision making system 113.

The slicing decision making system 113 determines the appropriate slicebased on certain criteria. The criteria may be related to the type ofcustomer, the service area, needed coverage for special events, the userequipment and the services being requested. For example, the servicedelivery enforced by the slicing decision making system 113 may be basedon the following criteria:

Most-Preferred customers

Most-Critically Needed customers (senior citizen),

Most-Critically Needed Service Area (earthquake, tsunami, tornado,hurricane)

Most-Critically Needed Event Coverage (Super Bowl, Olympics, World Cup,)

Highest Priority devices (e.g., iPhone 6)

Highest Priority Services (VoLTE launch, etc).

In one embodiment the network 101 may include a slicing training system115. The slicing training system 115 provides 5G data analytics andtraining for service assurance.

In another embodiment the slicing decision making system 113 and theslicing training system 115 may be included in the UE 112.

In one embodiment, the SDN controller 105 may query a service layer 117to determine what specific network functions are required to facilitatethe requested service or services. For example in an embodiment therequested services may be a premium streaming service 119 (HBO GO,MAXGO, Showtime Anytime) or a DirecTV service 121.

The communication network 100 may include a wireless access network 125having a radio access network such as RAN 127. RAN 127 implements theunderlying physical connection method for a radio based communicationnetwork and connects to a core network (not shown). A mobility network129 such as an LTE network or a 5G network can establish wirelesscommunications with UE 112, where the UE 112 can move from cell to cellwhile maintaining a communication session. In one or more embodiments,the UE 112 can establish a session with a portal. The portal can be afunction of an application that is resident at the UE 112 as astandalone application or as a client application to a serverapplication of the network 100. The portal functionality enables the UE112 to the final request particular service features either directly orindirectly. According to various embodiments, the UE 112 can provide tothe portal, or can define via the portal, a service request. In one ormore embodiments, the service request can include service feature datathat represents service features desired or needed in a service beingcreated and/or instantiated via the SDN controller 105. Alternatively,the service request can be a bare request for access to a service. Inthis case, the SDN controller 105 can determine the nature of theservice and the functionality and resources required for providing theservice.

In an embodiment, the UE 112 may include a 4G radio front end (RFE) 133and a first baseband processing unit (BBU) 135. UE 112 may also beprovided with a 5G RFE 137 and a second BBU 139. In the Universal MobileTelecommunications System (UMTS) and 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE), UE119 may be any device used directly by an end-user to communicate. UE112 may be a hand-held telephone, a laptop computer equipped with amobile broadband adapter, or any other device. UE 112 connects to thebase station Node B/eNodeB (not shown) in RAN 103 as specified in theETSI 125/136-series and 3GPP 25/36-series of specifications. RFE 133 andRFE 137 generally include everything between the antenna and the digitalbaseband system, typically all the filters, low-noise amplifiers (LNAs),and down-conversion mixer(s) needed to process the modulated signalsreceived at the antenna into signals suitable for input into thebaseband analog-to-digital converter (ADC). For this reason, RFE 133 andRFE 137 are considered the analog-to-digital or RF-to-baseband portionof a receiver. BBU 133 and BBU 139 are responsible for processing thebaseband signals.

Illustrated in FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a method 200 for 5G on demandintelligent analytics dynamic access network slice switching and carrieraggregation.

In step 201 the method initiates a dual radio UE (e.g. UE 111) requestto a radio RAN slice. The RAN (e.g. RAN 127 in FIG. 1) resides betweenthe UE and the core network (not shown) and provides a connection to thecore networok. The dual radio UE 119 may comprise a 4G RFE 121 and a 5GRFE 125.

In step 203 a UE initiates a service request (a 4G radio resourcecontrol (RRC) request and a 5G RRC request) to a RAN slice. In the caseof 5G, a single physical network will be sliced into multiple virtualnetworks that can support different RANs, or different service typesrunning across a single RAN. In an embodiment the network slicing may beimplemented in the RAN. The RRC protocol is used on the air interfaceand it is a layer that exist between the UE and the eNode B and existsat the IP level. The major functions of the RRC protocol includeconnection establishment and release functions, broadcast of systeminformation, radio bearer establishment, reconfiguration and release,RRC connection mobility procedures, paging notification and release andouter loop power control. By means of the signaling functions the RRCconfigures the user and control planes according to the network statusand allows for Radio Resource Management strategies to be implemented.

In step 205 a RAN slice scheduler instantiates a temporary RRC slicewith an associated timer that allows the dual radio UE to stay connectedto the radio access network for a period of time. The temporary RRCslice serves to “hold” and “keep alive” the UE's service request. Theoperation of the RRC is guided by a state machine which defines certainspecific states that a UE may be present in. The different states inthis state machine have different amounts of radio resources associatedwith them and these are the resources that the UE may use when it ispresent in a given specific state. Since different amounts of resourcesare available at different states the quality of the service that theuser experiences and the energy consumption of the UE are influenced bythis state machine.

In step 207 the RAN slice forwards the combined 4G RRC and 5G RRCrequests to a management gateway via the control plane.

In step 209 the management gateway forwards the RRC request to a servicelayer. The service layer is the middle layer between presentation anddata store. It abstracts business logic and data access. In intelligentnetworks and cellular networks, a service layer is a conceptual layerwithin a network service provider architecture. It aims at providingmiddleware that serves third-party value-added services and applicationsat a higher application layer. The service layer may provide capabilityservers owned by a telecommunication network service provider, accessedthrough open and secure Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) byapplication layer servers. The service layer also provides an interfaceto the core networks at a lower resource layer, for example the controllayer and transport layer. The idea behind such a layer is to have anarchitecture which can support multiple presentation layers such as web,mobile, etc.

In step 211 the service layer reviews the service request and determinesthe service level agreement (SLA) requirements for a user plane whichcarries the network user traffic. Typical SLA requirements may includequality of service class identifier (QCI) which is a requirement toensure proper quality of service for better traffic in the LTE networks;address resolution protocol (ARP) requirements; UE aggregate maximum bitrate (AMBR); and access point name (APN) AMBR, among others.

In step 213 the service layer directs an SDN controller (e.g. SDNcontroller 105 in FIG. 1) to determine the appropriate SFF to be appliedto the request for service. An SFF may include a network interface forreceiving indications of triggering events and for transmittinginstructions, and a processor and non-transient memory for storing theinstructions. The instructions, when executed by the processor, causethe slice selection function to, upon receiving an indication that aslice reselection triggering event associated with a UE attached to afirst slice has occurred, select a second slice as a target slice; andto initiate a migration of the UE to the selected target slice. The SSFhandles the UE's initial attach request and new session establishmentrequest by selecting an appropriate slice for the request for service.

In step 215 the SSF determines the appropriate resource and appropriateslice for complying with the user plane SLA requirement.

In step 217 the SFF further engages the RAN slice to instantiate acarrier aggregation slice whereby both the 4G RRC and 5G RRC comply withthe user plane SLA requirements. Carrier aggregation is an LTE-Advancedfeature that bonds together bands of spectrum to create wide channels,produce greater capacity and deliver faster speeds on capable devices.Essentially the idea of carrier aggregation is to take slices of radiospectrum from the different radio bands the carrier owns in a particularmarket and bunch them together to make a bigger channel. Carrieraggregation may be used to increase the bandwidth, and thereby increasethe bitrate.

Illustrated in FIG. 3 is a schematic of a decision system 300 that candynamically select the top N issues, on demand, and assign resources inorder to provide service assurance for the most critically needed andmost preferred services. In operation, a service request is initiated bya service request system 301 and is directed to an automatic scoringsystem 303. The automatic scoring system 303 records each case andmeasures data for each case. It then assigns one of the top N prioritiesat the resource assignment system 305. The selected resource assignmentis provided to a resource resolution phase 307 that closes the servicerequest with service request system 301 and returns measurements andfeedback to the automatic scoring system 303 to train the weightparameters in the automatic scoring system 303. The decision system 300may allocate services based on the most critically needed and mostpreferred basis, for example:

Most-Preferred customers

Most-Critically Needed customers (senior citizen,

Most-Critically Needed Service Area (earthquake, tsunami, tornado,hurricane)

Most-Critically Needed Event Coverage (Super Bowl, Olympics, World Cup,)

Highest Priority devices (e.g., iPhone 6)

Highest Priority Services (VoLTE launch, etc)

Embodiments within the scope of the present disclosure may also includecomputer-readable media for carrying or having computer-executableinstructions or data structures stored thereon. Such computer-readablemedia can be any available media that can be accessed by a generalpurpose or special purpose computer. By way of example, and notlimitation, such computer-readable media can comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM,CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or othermagnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to carryor store desired program code means in the form of computer-executableinstructions or data structures. When information is transferred orprovided over a network or another communications connection (eitherhardwired, wireless, or combination thereof) to a computer, the computerproperly views the connection as a computer-readable medium. Thus, anysuch connection is properly termed a computer-readable medium.Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope ofthe computer-readable media.

Computer-executable instructions include, for example, instructions anddata which cause a general purpose computer, special purpose computer,or special purpose processing device to perform a certain function orgroup of functions. Computer-executable instructions also includeprogram modules that are executed by computers in stand-alone or networkenvironments. Generally, program modules include routines, programs,objects, components, and data structures, etc. that perform particulartasks or implement particular abstract data types. Computer-executableinstructions, associated data structures, and program modules representexamples of the program code means for executing steps of the methodsdisclosed herein. The particular sequence of such executableinstructions or associated data structures represents examples ofcorresponding acts for implementing the functions described in suchsteps. Program modules may also comprise any tangible computer-readablemedium in connection with the various hardware computer componentsdisclosed herein, when operating to perform a particular function basedon the instructions of the program contained in the medium.

Those of skill in the art will appreciate that other embodiments of thedisclosure may be practiced in network computing environments with manytypes of computer system configurations, including personal computers,hand-held devices, multi-processor systems, microprocessor-based orprogrammable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframecomputers, and the like. Embodiments may also be practiced indistributed computing environments where tasks are performed by localand remote processing devices that are linked (either by hardwiredlinks, wireless links, or by a combination thereof) through acommunications network. In a distributed computing environment, programmodules may be located in both local and remote memory storage devices.

Although the above description may contain specific details, they shouldnot be construed as limiting the claims in any way. Other configurationsof the described embodiments of the disclosure are part of the scope ofthis disclosure. Accordingly, the appended claims and their legalequivalents should only define the disclosure, rather than any specificexamples given.

What is claimed:
 1. A method comprising: receiving at a radio accessnetwork a 4G service request and a 5G service request from a dual radiouser equipment having a specified priority; instantiating a first radioaccess network slice for the 4G service request and the 5G servicerequest using a radio access network scheduler; instantiating atemporary radio resource control protocol slice having an associatedtimer that allows the dual radio user equipment to stay connected to theradio access network for a period of time; forwarding a combined 4G and5G radio resource control protocol request to a management gateway via acontrol plane; receiving instructions identifying an appropriateresource and an appropriate radio access network slice for complyingwith user plane service level agreement requirements; and engaging asecond radio access network slice for instantiating a carrieraggregation slice comprising both the 4G and 5G radio resource controlprotocol request for complying with the user plane service levelagreement requirement.
 2. The method of claim 1 wherein the associatedtimer is related to a priority of the 4G service request and the 5Gservice request.
 3. The method of claim 1 wherein the period of time isdetermined by use of decision logic based on the specified priority. 4.The method of claim 1 wherein the instructions are determined by a sliceselection function.
 5. The method of claim 4 wherein the slice selectionfunction is determined by a software defined network controller.
 6. Themethod of claim 1 wherein the user plane service level agreementrequirements comprise one or more selected from among a group comprisinga quality of service class identifier, an address resolution protocol, auser equipment aggregate maximum bit rate, and an access point nameaggregate maximum bit rate.
 7. The method of claim 1 wherein the userplane service level agreement requirements are determined at a servicelayer.
 8. A system comprising: a processor; a memory coupled to theprocessor and configured to store program instructions executable by theprocessor to: receive at a radio access network a 4G service request anda 5G service request from a dual radio user equipment having a specifiedpriority; instantiate a first radio access network slice for the 4Gservice request and the 5G service request using a radio access networkscheduler; instantiate a temporary radio resource control protocol slicehaving an associated timer that allows the dual radio user equipment tostay connected to the radio access network for a period of time; forwarda combined 4G and 5G radio resource control protocol request to amanagement gateway via a control plane; receive resource instructionsidentifying an appropriate resource and an appropriate radio accessnetwork slice for complying with user plane service level agreementrequirements; and engage a second radio access network slice forinstantiating a carrier aggregation slice comprising both the 4 G and 5Gradio resource control protocol request for complying with a user planeservice level agreement requirement.
 9. The system of claim 8 whereinthe associated timer is related to a priority of the 4G service requestand the 5G service request.
 10. The system of claim 8 wherein the periodof time is determined by use of decision logic based on the specifiedpriority.
 11. The system of claim 8 wherein the resource instructionsare determined by a slice selection function.
 12. The system of claim 11wherein the slice selection function is determined by a software definednetwork controller.
 13. The system of claim 8 wherein the user planeservice level agreement requirements comprise one or more selected fromamong a group comprising a quality of service class identifier, anaddress resolution protocol, a user equipment aggregate maximum bitrate, and an access point name aggregate maximum bit rate.
 14. Thesystem of claim 8 wherein the user plane service level agreementrequirements are determined at a service layer.
 15. A non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium, comprising program instructions,wherein the program instructions are computer-executable to: receive ata radio access network a 4G service request and a 5G service requestfrom a dual radio user equipment having a specified priority;instantiate a first radio access network slice for the 4G servicerequest and the 5G service request using a radio access networkscheduler; instantiate a temporary radio resource control protocol slicehaving an associated timer that allows the dual radio user equipment tostay connected to the radio access network for a period of time; forwarda combined 4G and 5G radio resource control protocol request to amanagement gateway via a control plane; receive resource instructionsidentifying an appropriate resource and an appropriate radio accessnetwork slice for complying with user plane service level agreementrequirements; and engage a second radio access network slice forinstantiating a carrier aggregation slice comprising both the 4 G and 5Gradio resource control protocol request for complying with a user planeservice level agreement requirement.
 16. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium of claim 15 wherein the associatedtimer is related to a priority of the 4G service request and the 5Gservice request.
 17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage mediumof claim 15 wherein the period of time is determined by use of decisionlogic based on the specified priority.
 18. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium of claim 15 wherein the resourceinstructions are determined by a slice selection function.
 19. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18 wherein theslice selection function is determined by a software defined networkcontroller.
 20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium ofclaim 15 wherein the user plane service level agreement requirementscomprise one or more selected from among a group comprising a quality ofservice class identifier, an address resolution protocol, a userequipment aggregate maximum bit rate, and an access point name aggregatemaximum bit rate.